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Hollywood films and science fiction literature fuel the belief that aliens are monster-like beings, who are very different to humans. But new research suggests that we could have more in common with our extra-terrestrial neighbours, than initially thought.
In a new study published in the International Journal of Astrobiology scientists from the University of Oxford show for the first time how evolutionary theory can be used to support alien predictions and better understand their behaviour. They show that aliens are potentially shaped by the same processes and mechanisms that shaped humans, such as natural selection.
The theory supports the argument that foreign life forms undergo natural selection, and are like us, evolving to be fitter and stronger over time.
[...] The paper also makes specific predictions about the biological make-up of complex aliens, and offers a degree of insight as to what they might look like.
[...] 'There are potentially hundreds of thousands of habitable planets in our galaxy alone. We can't say whether or not we're alone on Earth, but we have taken a small step forward in answering, if we're not alone, what our neighbours are like.'
http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2017-10-31-aliens-may-be-more-us-we-think
[Also Covered By]: phys.org
Darwin's aliens (open, DOI: 10.1017/S1473550417000362) (DX)
Evolutionary exobiology: towards the qualitative assessment of biological potential on exoplanets (DOI: 10.1017/S1473550417000349) (DX)
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Thursday November 02 2017, @02:36AM (1 child)
If an ecosystem develops around self-replicating processes, then natural selection should come into play - but, in a different environment and with a different starting sequence, natural selection would be expected to come up with some dramatically different forms. Bilateral symmetry might be a something that frequently wins the natural selection game - two feet is the minimum required for running style locomotion, and two is also the minimum number for stereoscopic vision, directional hearing, and single failure backups. Five digits on the extremities would seem to be a more arbitrary evolutionary feature, or digits at all depending on the environment. You don't have to go extra-terrestrial to find variations like squid, octopi and elephant trunks.
Something that environment might play a big role in is the balance of the senses, in an atmosphere opaque to "visible" light, other senses would take the forefront, including all sorts of variations on the EM spectrum, pressure and pressure waves, particulate identification, and stranger things that we aren't likely to conceive of due to our limited experience in the Universe.
I think the interesting aliens won't be coming from Goldilocks zone planets with oxygen-nitrogen atmospheres and plenty of water, the interesting ones will come from different temperature zones, hot and cold, utilizing different chemical processes. Those aliens will also probably be easier to co-exist with in the same solar system.
🌻🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 02 2017, @09:57PM
You may have already read it by now, but there's a graphic novel called Expedition-2358 which explores a lot of what you're describing (note that's the *abbreviated* name; it has an excessively long subtitle I can't remember).
I'm not sure if it's still in print atm. If something you're interested in, there's probably still an ebook version or used copies floating around on ebay or similar.